Bogdan Fiedur

My name is Bogdan Fiedur. Let me tell you a short story

It was 1986 in Poland the year that two young university
graduates were married.

These were the years of the post–solidarity movement in
Poland, where martial law was introduced and people were given rations to live. The job market didn’t make any sense at this time, because university graduates either couldn’t get jobs or they could only work for a minimum salary.

The young couple decided to leave the country in search of a better life so they went to Germany where they spent 4 years looking for other destinations (Germany does not accept immigrants). During this four year period two children were born.

In 1991, they managed to arrange a one way flight from Germany to Canada and soon, this young family with two children (1.5 and 3 years old) arrived at the Winnipeg airport. They had only a very vague understanding of English and no knowledge of what they could do in this new country.

An employee of the church (which offered them help in the form of guidance and a temporary place to live), was waiting for them at the airport to pick them up to take them to a little apartment. This run–down building with old mattresses on the floor was already shared by several other families.

The family’s father swore that he would never again do the kind of jobs he had to do during his four year stay in Germany.

He worked on construction sites, cut the grass, loaded and unloaded ships. In general these were very low–paying activities, which didn’t make much difference in the family’s life.

In order to receive better jobs, the father and mother decided to receive recognition for their east block education from Canadian Universities. It turned out that the University clerk couldn’t pronounce the name of the University from Poland and decided that they didn’t fall within the requirements of recognized educational centers.

After several failed attempts to get Canadian certifications, the mother and father decided to take some courses at a Canadian University.

The next obstacle was how the parents would pay for the university. Since they didn’t have any money, there was one option only. The student loan.

The father got so interested in the courses that he managed to complete an entire 4 year computer science program within 2.5 years and got his first job as a programmer before his last semester was even finished. His wife got her first job around the same time.

Two years after they arrived in Canada, they both had well paid professional jobs. Soon the father got interested in the internet. He also started reading books from such motivational personalities like Tony Robbins and Brian Tracy. He discovered that the most successful people started from scratch. He started reading biographies of known personalities and other books teaching the power of mind.

Inspired by this, he started running his own internet business from his basement and within two years his home business was making double what his day job was making him. It was time to quit the day job and start working full time from the basement.

Well, as you might have guessed, that father was me, the mother is my wife, and those 1.5 and 3 year old kids are now two girls attending university. During all these years, I have read stacks of books, listened to various tapes and CDs and learned that everything that happens in an individual’s life is up to them. They create their own destiny. Everything can be learned and understood, you just need to be able to realize this. I realized this when I found myself in a situation where I had to work twice as hard as others in order to get the same results. In all that, quotations and pointers from successful people were for me the required component to keep me on track and give me instant support and encouragement.

Reading these “two or three liners” was sometimes enough to get me over the hurdle and keep me moving. I trusted these words and I still read them daily. It helps me because each day of my life is full of surprises and new challenges.

Once you reach one level, then there is the next one which has so many unknowns. Again, you need to receive strength from somebody who was there before you.

Bogdan Fiedur graduated from the University of Manitoba with a Bachelor in Computer Science